This I haven't heard before. How do you go about doing this?

Since when? A tank going chin to chin with a boss will survive a lot longer in heavy plate than one in cloth armor. The Armor Ratings between the two are vastly different.

Like I said, I will try as long as there is good justification for it. I ran 5 mans in vanilla WoW with shaman tanks and healers (both sub-par for the role); I'm not one to try and enforce min/max at all times.

Just saying game mechanics exist and there is a difference between an idealized fantasy and reality. If a boss requires a player to mitigate damage and you can do so through other means in light armor, I'm all for it. If you keep getting yourself killed due to refusal of game mechanics acknowledgement, I have better things to do with my time than try and keeping you healed and will go find a group that can get the job done.

A tank's job is not to go chin to chin, it's to hold the attention and try not to take too much damage. Yes this can be accomplished by having a higher armor rating, but it can also be accomplished through use of block, dodge and interrupt as well as different class or weapon abilities. A Heavy Armor tank is likely the easiest but not the only way to go. It would require a proper build and proper playing though as opposed to stand there and be beat on, trusting in your armor.

Depends on how you mean, really. Heavy armor should provide a benefit. Medium and light should not be able to achieve the same levels if mitigation as heavy. They should provide other benefits like increased stamina or magicka regen, but absolutely not pure damage soaking potential. I think a medium tank should be viable if focused around damage evasion and appropriate class skills, but not to the point that you can put on light armor and be given buffs (self or otherwise) to increase mitigation to the level of a heavy armor wearer.

Have you played the beta? Do you have any idea what you are talking about? You do post a lot.

I mean solely as a "tank" role in that you get and maintain the target's attention and do your best to minimize damage. That may be via mitigation, it may be by getting out of the way, it may be by stunning/rooting. I know I had no issues tanking with my medium armor Dragon Knight. Light Armor tank would likely take a very specific build but at least it's feasible which is a step up for so many other games.

I agree with that. A lightly armored tank that uses damage shields, debuts, evasion and positioning would be welcome. Hopefully it'll be viable at all levels of content so that we don't have people getting turned down because they're not S/S DKs in Heavy.

A tank's job is to soak damage, not avoid damage. It's that very nature that gave the role it's "Tank" name. They're going to get hit a lot, and hit hard. They need armor and health to mitigate and withstand that incoming damage. A tank in light armor is not going to be nearly as effective, regardless of build.

I love that the game encourages different ways to approach things. Most fun I had was with a Templar. I started the game with weapon and shield, picked up a smattering of healing from the class, found a second weapon and tried two weapon fighting, picked up Aedric Spear, killed a lot of things, found a restoration staff and tried out more healing and less stabby-stabby. Then I found the combination I liked the best. The fact that I wasn't locked in to a certain approach holds so much appeal for me it's silly

You probably shouldnt go insulting people when you really have no idea. It is true you can go outside the box, but that still (and never did) allow you to take skills from other classes.

I prefer to think that as a tank my job is to keep the enemy focused on me and not the rest of my group. As long as I'm doing that and minimizing the damage I take through whatever means I have then how is it not tanking? The mere fact that ESO is open enough to allow for different approaches to the traditional "trinity" is awesome, IMO.

That's how they were in older games, but nowadays a tank is often mitigating damage in other ways, including avoidance.

A light armor tank is conceivable if they're focusing on magicka-based mitigation. I don't know how effective that's expected to be, but it wouldn't surprise me if someone quickly comes up with a way to make it work.

I've been in the Beta since very very early on. It has never ever been like you say it is/was. Never.

To be clear, what I mean is:

At no point in the development cycle of this game was the claim you make true in any way shape or form.

Yes, the tank's job is to keep their attention and not the rest of the group. But a tank also has to keep encounters manageable. The tank IS going to get hit, regardless of what skills they have at their disposal to avoid incoming damage, and when those hit's land they will likely smart quite a bit. When those hits land, the group dynamic changes, as somebody in the group will have to expend more time, energy, and resources to heal the tank back up (and quickly), than they normally would have to. Not to mention, it's much easier for a party to handle a boss encounter when a tank can stand toe to toe with the boss in a manageable location while the party DPS's it down, than it is for a party that has to constantly chase the boss around because the tank is kiting it all over the place because the tank is using avoidance in lieu of raw mitigation.

Yes tanks can use avoidance and other skills to fulfill the role. But they're not as effective for a group dynamic. A heavy tank is much less likely to see the healer spamming "OOM" every boss fight.

I didn't encounter many things in ESO that led to the "stand toe to toe" with the foe mentality. I can definitely see your point, especially in most MMOs and I certainly don't disagree but my experience in ESO leaves me to believe that doing things the "traditional" way won't always work. Creatures seemed a lot more mobile and I never came across any skills that I would classify as a "taunt" (doesn't mean there aren't any). It may work some of the time, but I think that groups that will ultimately be more "successful" will be ones that think outside the box.

Taking a skill from another class was never an option. Thats why you have different classes that you chhose to play. You have multiple weapon lines to mix with your class though.

Would be kind of stupid to thank that you could mix and match class abilities?, wouldnt be a reason tho have classes then.

Yup, thats why i didnt want classes in first place, but they could add somethink allows you to switch class on 1 character, you would keep non-class skill lines

lol... sooo cheeky!

I play as a Sorceror in the ESO beta I use the summoner line of spells from the Sorceror, at the Same time I dual wield swords which unlocks for me the dual wielding line which is basically assassination skills and at the same time I wear Plate armor which gives me the defense bonuses of a tank effectively making me a mage assassin with high defense

this is what I was wrongfully labelling a sorceror Nightblade apparently, I did not actually cross class into the nightblade class BUT I did take the dual wielding skill tree which unlocks assassination skills for me